Broward man gets five-year prison term in child porn case

A Broward County man was sentenced to five years in federal prison Monday after admitting he had downloaded more than 200 child pornography videos and photographs to his computer.

Mariano Franchy, 64, of Cooper City, pleaded guilty to one count each of distribution of child pornography last year.

Early last year, FBI agents discovered that sexually explicit videos and images of young children were being downloaded and shared and they traced the files to Franchy's home computer.

Franchy, who worked for 20 years as a respiratory therapist in the neonatal intensive care unit at Memorial Hospital West in Pembroke Pines, passed out while agents were questioning him at work on April 17. He recovered and was arrested later the same day. The hospital terminated him shortly later and there was no evidence of any work-related misconduct, court records show.

Franchy was also sentenced to 15 years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender when he gets out of prison, court records show.